Pennsylvania now ranks second in the nation for natural gas production volume, according to new data released by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), which provides revenue projections for use in the state budget process and analysis of fiscal, economic and budgetary issues that support state policy decision making.
“We’re proud to be an energy production leader as consumers enjoy home energy savings, manufacturers gain a competitive advantage, our skilled labor force is gainfully employed, our country is more energy secure, and our air is cleaner than ever before,” Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Callahan told Pennsylvania Business Report.
Pennsylvania’s ability to advance to a national top spot in natural gas production, Callahan added, “hinges on commonsense state and federal policies that attract private investment, modernize pipeline infrastructure to reach markets near and far, alleviate basin-wide price discounts, and encourage broad regional and global natural gas use.”
The IFO report provides state production comparisons based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and ranks the top five states in order of production: Texas, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
Through May 2021, Pennsylvania production recorded the strongest year-over-year growth of any top-five state, according to the IFO report, with the state’s production also comprising 18.7 percent of nationwide production through May, which would be the state’s highest share on record for a full year.
“Pennsylvania is right on the heels of Texas, the nation’s top natural gas producer, because the fundamentals of the Marcellus and Utica shale plays are strong, pipeline capacity has improved, and producers and midstream operators continue to make efficiency gains,” said Callahan.
Additionally, the IFO report for the second quarter of 2021 used data collected by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to develop statewide and county-level tabulations of production volume and well counts data, which pertain only to gas produced from unconventional sources, such as shale.
The report’s DEP data shows that Pennsylvania natural gas production volume from horizontal wells was 1,851 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the second quarter of 2021, a 7.8 percent increase over the prior year. This is the strongest year-over-year growth for a quarter in nearly two years, according to the IFO report.
“The second quarter growth was largely driven by June production, which grew by 10.0 percent from June 2020,” the report says. “Year-over-year growth in quarterly production has now accelerated notably through the first half of 2021.”
There also were 120 new horizontal wells spud in the second quarter of 2021, representing an increase of seven wells (6.2 percent) from the same period in the prior year, according to the report, which also pointed out that the second quarter of 2020 includes the first impacts of COVID-19 on natural gas production and drilling.
“This results in the year-over-year drilling increase for 2021 Q2, despite the reduction from 2021 Q1,” IFO says.